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July 4, 2015

Princess sleepover

Pizzas, popcorn & juice, & Princesses. After dinner we had a lesson from the Hermana Missionaries. We talked about how we come from a Heavenly Father that is a King making us princesses. We decorated crowns and made a gigantic glittery mess in my house.

Afterwards it was play time in the pool. A bunch of rowdy, squealy girls were pretty much emptying my pool out. haha!

The Princess diaries was the movie of choice. Since we had a theme going.

The adults really enjoyed the movie… the girls ended up singing and playing in the play room. But hey it was their sleepover. I went to bed around 11:30pm, leaving the other two adults to suffer… sleep nearby the girls. I was told they ended up going quiet around 4am. But bright and early at 7am girls were up and giggling. I got up and made blueberry pancakes. We put on another movie as we waited for parents, turns out they weren't as interested in the movie and wanted to play in the dress up. By 11am the last girl left and my house was cleaned and quiet. ahhh…

I am so grateful to be the Primary president and to be able to have activities like this for these kids. They are making memories, building relationships, and growing their testimonies. These girls are our future leaders, and future moms.

Preheat the
oven to 350 degrees. Microwave the butter for about 40 seconds to just
barely melt it. It shouldn't be hot - but it should be almost entirely
in liquid form.

Using
a stand mixer or electric beaters, beat the butter with the sugars
until creamy. Add the vanilla and the egg; beat on low speed until just
incorporated - 10-15 seconds or so (if you beat the egg for too long,
the cookies will be stiff).

Add
the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix until crumbles form. Use your
hands to press the crumbles together into a dough. It should form one
large ball that is easy to handle (right at the stage between "wet"
dough and "dry" dough). Add the chocolate chips and incorporate with
your hands.

Roll
the dough into 12 large balls (or 9 for HUGELY awesome cookies) and
place on a cookie sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes until the cookies look
puffy and dry and just barely golden.Warning, friends: DO NOT OVERBAKE.
This advice is probably written on every cookie recipe everywhere, but
this is essential for keeping the cookies soft. Take them out even if
they look like they're not done yet (see picture in the post). They'll
be pale and puffy.

Let
them cool on the pan for a good 30 minutes or so (I mean, okay, eat
four or five but then let the rest of them cool). They will sink down
and turn into these dense, buttery, soft cookies that are the best in
all the land. These should stay soft for many days if kept in an
airtight container. I also like to freeze them.

June 24, 2015

Very soon our little Spanish branch will become a Ward. And we are seeing such miracles happening. Gustavo has a great conversion story, just ask him. He has been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saintsfor a year and he has decided to serve a mission.

And then we have the 2 boys that have grown up together, gotten the eagle scout together, graduated together and now they opened their mission calls together. It's so exciting and we can hardly wait to send these young men into the mission field.

Field day

I have been looking forward to this activity. I have wanted to do a water activity with the branch. So I thought it would be perfect to pair it with a Father's day dinner. So we had BBQ and all the yummies that go with it.

We had the activity at the Ramos Families home. They were so kind to let us invade their beautiful property. Pacer and I got there at noon to set up. I knew I had 1000 water balloons to fill. After my second hour of filling balloons I called it at 500. I was done! my fingers were wrinkled and red.

We had water balloon volleyball, water softball, and then a killer water balloon fight all set and ready to go. The activity was supposed to start at 4pm which in Spanish means 5pm. Food arrives, we start and eat chicken, beans, rice & tortillas. So my favorite foods!

The kids were anxious to get started so food had been eaten and it was game on.